Runescape: a New Origin of Oryxace
by Oryxace
Summary: Tales have been told about who and what he is, but the truth is seldom known, so lets start right at the beginning, the origin of the man, the legend, the god; Oryxace.
1. Chapter 1, Just a Farmboy

Thunder is a wretched thing, can't hurt you, but it has a tendency to scare the crap out of you all the same. Mud is another wretched thing, because when there's thunder, there's rain, and where there's rain, there is mud. But the most wretched thing of all, is losing your mother after only 15 years.

The mud clung to my boots, my feet sank, and it took increasing effort to rip them free and move forward. Rain poured down with a ferocity hardly seen before, the bells of the church rang loudly, just barely audible over the pounding thunder. A flash of lightning and the gates of the graveyard, rusty and weathered were illuminated. I steeled myself and trudged past them, into a place one should not be at night, especially not tonight. My foot sunk suddenly in the mud and I started falling forward, my hands flew out instinctively, and smashed in a hard wall.

Another flash of lightning and I knew where I was, in front of me, the thing that had broken my fall, _the Crypt of Lumbridge_. I pulled myself through the mud and collapsed just under the canopy to the doorway, the rain kept pounding, but at least I wasn't getting as wet. A wind blew from my left, the direction that the door to the crypt should have been. I looked left, and nearly fell back into the mud, the door was gone, the crypt was wide open, darkness seemed to grip at my vision. I decided I ought to wait the storm out with a bit more shelter over my head, I slipped into the ancient crypt and found a nice corner to sit in, my soaking clothes not doing much to keep me warm.

No one really knew what the crypt was for, it had stood in _Lumbridge_ since before the church was built, and always with an eerie presence. Many legends surrounded it, not all of them good, but for lack of a better name we simply referred to it as ' _The Crypt of Lumbridge'_. No one had ever been inside it, and once I'd had a moment to rest I realized how momentous this was. I was sitting inside _the Crypt of Lumbridge_ , the first person to do so in who knows how long. I smiled to myself, it was a pretty big occasion, though it could've come on a better day.

Several hours earlier my mother had died, the last of the old _Al-Kharidian_ Royal Family, exiled by rebels many years before. This meant of course that on a technicality I was now the heir to the throne of _Al-Kharid_ , but the monarchy there had been destroyed many years ago. No one recognized the royal family's authority any more, thus it was beneath me to worry about it. The cold state of my physical being did not prevent me from crying, my mother was dead, and no amount of rejecting that fact would ever bring her back. After crying for a short time, exhaustion overtook me, and I fell asleep, dreaming of a sunny day with mommy.

I awoke in a violent fit of coughing, I felt chills and cramps all throughout my body, obviously sleeping in wet clothes had been a terrible idea. Sun was streaming in from the door, which meant I could get warm if I could bring myself to walk a short ways. However the energy I had had the night before was long gone, any trace of any emotion other than agony was gone.

Then came a voice, from outside, it was a ways away, but very much there. I listened, perhaps I wasn't about to die in a hole in the ground.

"Move it you bitch!" Said one of the voices, a harsh tone to it, it was followed by a shriek, as though a girl had just been struck.

"L-leave her alone Reese, sh-she hasn't done anything to deserve a-" Came another voice, hastily cut off by a third.

"Shut it you!" The final voice was that of a woman, "We're almost there."

I coughed again, not meaning to, but the chills were too severe for me not to.

"See, the door is gone, just like that demon said it would be." Said the first voice, _Reese_.

"Then lets get a move on." The female voice came again.

A boot stepped onto the stone of the crypt entrance and then into the crypt itself, the man who wore it was a rather scrawny fellow, holding a worn looking bow. He survey the entranced, then lit a torch, going to light the torches around the room. I knew that as they were lit I would become more visible, as he came to light the last one, above my head, he saw me, jumping back a little almost dropping his torch.

Hastily he levelled a bow at me.

"Reese!" He yelled, "We've got a problem here!"

"What is it this time?" Reese said, stepping into the crypt and looking at the man with the bow, "This had better not be another one of your anxious fits _Kayle_."

"No it's not!" He said, gesturing to me in the corner.

For a moment, the man, Reese, just stared at me, almost angrily, I let out a violent fit of coughing, and he laughed a little.

"This boy is sickly and weak, he poses no threat to us." He turned away, "But all the same, I want you to keep an eye on him Kayle."

"I- I can do that." Kayle replied, looking almost proud for a moment in his rather jumpy state.

"Good, come Caitlin we have a ritual to attend to." Reese said, as he took the torch from Kayle and walked deeper into the crypt.

A woman entered the crypt, pushing another forward a prisoner. The captor was dressed in a red green robe open at the mid-rift and revealing a fair amount of her legs and bosom, her hair was a dark orange, and tied back in a ponytail. The captive was dressed in a torn blue robe, similar to what wizards wore, her face was bloodied and swollen, her hair cut at uneven intervals. It was obvious that these people were not treating her well, she looked broken, and hopeless. The captor, _Caitlin_ , violently pushed the beaten girl forward, she let out a yelp when she was struck with _Caitlin's_ staff.

"Let her go..." I let out weakly, coughing afterward.

"Kayle, make sure that he doesn't make it." The woman said, pushing the girl into the next room in the crypt.

He looked at me with a face filled with worry, fear, and confusion.

"J-just get down there and finish whatever it is you wanted to do." He said, his voice unsteady.

The woman didn't reply, instead ignoring him and vanishing into the darkness after Reese and the captive girl. Kayle, looked at me, obviously he had a weaker temperament than the two who had progressed deeper into the crypt. His bowed was still levelled at me, he didn't want to kill me, I could tell, he didn't have the malice or angry hunger of an animal that was necessary to kill.

"X-Altruism is a dangerous thing to have you know." He said, his voice slightly more steady than before.

"I... I don't know... what that is." I muttered through violent coughs.

"Your name it Kayle right?" I said, my body shivering uncontrollably.

"Yeah, that's right." He replied, looking me in the eye.

"My name is _Acelian_ , it's nice to meet you..." I coughed.

"Damn it!" She yelled, lowering his bow, "Why did you have to go and say that?!"

"Because... you won't kill me now." I replied.

My parents had told me many times I had the aptitude to be a doctor, they said time and again that I was too bright for the life of a farmer. However my family didn't have the money to send me to any place that would allow me to exercise my mind well, so I had to do it on my own. Through observation I'd learned a lot about people, and their psychology.

"You're a rather perceptive one, aren't you?" a female voice came from the entrance.

"Xenia..." Kayle began to trembling.

"Kayle, you'll let that boy live, now won't you?" She said, stepping into the crypt.

"But Reese said that-"

"Reese lies." She said, resting a hand on a sword strapped to her belt.

"Please don't hurt me!" He stammered, "I never meant to hurt anyone, Reese said this would help me with my anxiety."

"Should I reiterate my statement?" She said, lowering her voice.

"N-n-n-no!" Kayle screamed, fear very much filling him, "I'll leave, never gonna get involved in these things again I swear!"

"Go." Xenia said with a gesture of her head.

Kayle ran from the crypt, the woman, who looked old, bent over me, examining my condition. I coughed violently and sustained for a good 2 minutes, bring up the contents of my stomach in the process. She stretched out her left hand, it was glowing a comforting shade of green.

For a moment it seemed like I'd blacked out, then I was very much conscious again. The woman, Xenia, was still kneeling in front of me, her side was bleeding, and she had a hand over it. Suddenly I realized that I felt much better, the influenza I had developed in the cave because of my wet clothes, was gone. In fact, my clothes were dry now, and felt almost new, stood up, the woman in front of me was however injured. Her side was bleeding fairly heavily, and she was leaning against a pillar.

"Your name is Acelian, correct?" She asked me, breathing heavily.

"Yes, and I'm assuming you're Xenia." I replied to her.

"Yes, now listen, I have something you need to do, I would've taken care of it for myself, however as you can see..."

"You're too injured to carry on with it." I said, observing the wound.

"Yes, I did not expect to have to ask for help from a complete stranger, I thought I could stop my students myself, but..."

"I don't know how much good I'll be, I've never used a weapon before." I said.

"You have to try!" Xenia said, "That poor girl is going to be sacrificed if we do nothing, we cannot let that happen!"

"I don't disagree with you, but I stand no chance against trained fighters." I replied, not meaning to sound so cold.

"Are you really going to let that girl die?" Xenia asked, drawing her sword and tossing it the ground in front of me.

As much as I knew I was doomed to fail in my attempt to save the girl most likely in my death, I couldn't bring myself to leave the crypt. I felt as though I had nothing to lose, and something to gain in helping this person, it was a feeling I didn't know existed inside me. I picked up the sword, it was a long thin sword, and a bulge at the base of the blade, and a short hilt wrapped in leather.

Without thinking I descended deeper into the crypts, I didn't have anything to lose, my father still had my brothers, and the person I cared about the most was dead. I descended a short staircase to a room that was divided by a chasm in the floor, not really a chasm though, it was obviously designed as such. On the other side was the woman from earlier, wielding a spear-like staff, wrapped in red leather, and with a metal oval on the top, with a hole in it's centre. She raised it and a blast of air struck me, knocking me off my feet. I tried to stand again, and another blast of air knocked me down.

Laying on the cold floor, I considered the situation, she was a magic user, firing bolts of air across an impassable distance. But she would've had to have entered through here, so how did she get across? I looked around, for a rope, or a ladder, something to tell me how she got across, then I noticed an entry at the end of the divide, one arch way on my side, and another on her side. I pushed myself up and ran, Xenia's sword gripped tight in my hand. I ran at the archway, slamming into a set of bars, a bolt of air struck my side and I grabbed them to avoid falling over.

She fired another air bolt, striking my in the leg, still gripping the bars I collapsed to my knees.

"Did you think we'd just leave the way open!?" She yelled with delight.

I didn't answer.

"You will die, knowing you never stood a chance of saving anyone!" She said, firing a series of air bolts.

Bracing myself they struck me, the pain was immense, I let out a scream of agony, my focus dissolved, and I came dangerously near unconsciousness. I felt something trickling down my side, blood most likely, I was probably bleeding from the hits. I leaned myself against a wall, and stared at the archway, blocked by bars, my only way forward blocked.

The woman on the other side of the divide, Caitlin, laughed, and launched more attacks at me. I lost the strength to sit upright and fell to my side, landing on a lever of some sort, a wheel begin spinning, chains made a clanking noise as they moved, the bars sank into the floor. I hadn't noticed it before in my agony, I managed to crawl out of range of her attacks. Standing was too difficult, my leg felt broken, and I most certainly had a few broken ribs, I could feel various parts of my body beginning to swell. _Why did I let her talk me into this?_ I thought to myself, feeling my consciousness slip away from me.

 _You're not a hero!_

 _I could be a better hero than you!_

 _You are a nothing, a farm boy, you grow the food, we tax the food, and you just barely get enough to eat, remember your place peasant._

 _I believe in you, Acelian, you can do anything you set your mind to..._

I pulled myself to consciousness, this was not the time to give up, someone was in danger, and I had to save her. I struggled to pull myself to my feet, but I managed, pain shooting up my leg, I braced myself against the wall and picked up Xenia's sword. Why had I left home, but not for this very moment when I could be something more than a farm boy in Lumbridge?

A mix of emotions swelled in my chest and I cranked the second lever, opening the bars to the second archway. I was something more than a farmer, I had always been something more than a farmer, I just had to prove it. A blast of air shot through the archway, I hugged the wall, then taking a deep breath I dove into the next area. Bolts struck all around me, but I managed to avoid being hit myself, I ran toward the mage, roaring as a way to ignore the pain. I was within range, I slashed diagonally upward with the sword, it collided with her staff, and kept going, cutting it clean in two.

A blast of magic knocked me back a little ways. Caitlin looked furious, the remains of the staff crumbled to dust in her hands. Then she gasped for air, clutching her throat, her body began to dry up, in a moment she was nothing but dust in the crypt. Limping I climbed down a set of stairs into a large open chamber, it had a grate on the floor, for a reason I need not have guessed. Reese stood with the girl bound at his feet, holding a sword to her throat, he looked at me then back at the girl.

"I don't know who you are, or how you recovered so quickly, but this ends here!" He yelled, the girl had a gag in her mouth.

"I won't let you kill an innocent person!" I responded, levelling my sword in his direction.

"That sword belongs to Xenia, my old teacher." He said, disbelief briefly flashing across his face, "So that's how you recovered, that old bitch!"

He drew back from the girl and drew a second sword, exactly the same as his first, a short sword inlaid with a red gem where the hilt met the blade. I raised the sword Xenia had given me, and ran toward, bring the sword down in a vertical slash, he used his swords to catch mine. he snapped the blade in my hand with no effort whatsoever, the blade clattered to the floor next to a very frightened captive.

Swiftly moving his blades he embedded them in my chest, the air escaped my lungs and I fell forward.

"This is what happens when you try to be a hero." He whispered into my ear, pulling one of the swords out of my chest.

"You've got the wrong idea..." I croaked, "I'm just a farm boy..."

I raised what was left of Xenia's sword, and stabbed it into the side of Reese's neck, he let go of the sword still embedded in my chest and stumbled backward before falling over. I stumbled backward into a pillar, the tip of the sword getting pushed back into my chest, I couldn't breath, my vision became covered in black spots. Then a warm breeze blew through the crypt, for a moment I felt as though I could breath.

Xenia was walking toward me, her left hand was glowing green, a comforting green. She raised it and the sword in my chest clattered to the ground, my wounds healed. As she was approaching a loud crack came from further into the crypt, then an explosion. Forces I could not see flew past me and knocked Xenia and the captive back, Xenia caught the poor girl, and tried to hold her ground. Reese's body was also not affected by the invisible force, however it burst into nothing but blood, and flew in the direction the explosion had come from.

"Acelian!" Zenia yelled above the roar of the pulsating magic.

I couldn't hear her, the roar was too loud, then another explosion rocked the crypt, and a rock struck my head, knocking me unconscious. At that moment I understood something that I had always knew, I wasn't meant to be a farmer in _Lumbridge_. I had something more to do in the world, something spectacular, and it all started in that crypt, _The Tomb of Dragith Nurn_.


	2. Chapter 2, The Tomb of Dragith Nurn

The dark is scary because the senses cannot perceive danger in it, we hear what we think is just beyond our view, and our perception of things becomes warped. Most of the time one can be assured that what is just beyond their vision poses them no threat. The dark thus becomes something that need not be feared, rather quietly respected for its ability to deprive us of our senses.

The darkness before me however, was something to fear, a cold presence permeated it, pierced my being, and forced my heart to palpitate wildly. I didn't know what was in front of me, I dared not step forward for fear of wandering into a gaping hole. It was a miracle I had been able to stand; up and down seemed distorted, the sensation made me dizzy, and I clung to a solid object that was behind. This solid object, whether a wall or a pillar was my only real surety of a direction, and kept me from falling over out of vertigo. There was no sound, except for my heavy, frightened breathing, the silence was uneasy to me.

It was impossible to know what time it was, without light the world was an extremely linear plane of existence. Reluctantly I decided to take a step forward, in an effort to do something to take my mind off the darkness. My boot clanged against something, made of metal, startling me somewhat. I cautiously reached down and felt around for its hilt, which I found fairly easily. I picked it up, it didn't give me light, but it felt good in my hand, like a defence against the darkness.

The black world around me was suddenly broken by a soft glow to my right. It was an unnatural shade of blue, and it was getting stronger. The area in front of me became illuminated, I took a few steps forward and looked in the direction the light was coming. Two floating orbs approached, along with a faint clattering, like armour, involuntarily my grip tightened on the sword in my hand. Then the entire chamber erupted into blue light, blinded by the sudden illumination, my eyes slammed shut. A momentary loss of equilibrium caused me to stubble, and something whizzed past my head, opening my eyes I learned what had caused those two orbs of light.

Slamming it's forearm into my head, a walking skeleton prepared for another attack. Raising my sword toward it I could feel myself shaking, it circled around me, it's rusted sword low but poised to strike. I placed my left hand onto the hilt of the short sword in an attempt to steady it, the skeleton lunged. I managed to block the blow, but it stepped in and knocked off my feet. Hitting the ground I rolled, catching it's leg between mine, and bring it down as well.

It's sword hit the ground and skittered across the floor, I tried to stand, but our legs and tangled. It let out a faint screech, unlike anything I'd heard before, then grabbed my left leg. It managed to untangle itself and stand, pulling my left leg up with it, the blood started rushing to my head. It punched my stomach, hard, and I felt myself gag, it struck again and I let out a short gasp. After a third punch it threw me across the room, striking a pillar I slid to the ground, reeling from the strikes, somehow I was still holding the sword I had obtained earlier.

 _How do you defeat a skeleton?_ I thought to myself, desperately searching my mind for something, I didn't want to die here, I couldn't, not yet. Suddenly I remembered a line from a book I'd read;

 _'On the subject of simple Golems, generally a single power source will be used. This would contain it's energy, intelligence, and binding enchantments. If the power source becomes seperated from the body of the Golem, the Golem will cease to function...'_

This wasn't really a exactly a Golem, but the principle had to similar enough to try it. Looking at the skeleton as it slowly approached me, it was pretty obvious was its 'power source' was, the head. Struggling against the pain in my gut I slid upward with the help of the pillar, all I had to do was decapitate it, then I'd be safe.

The skeleton reared for an attack, stabbing forward with it's sword, I stepped to the side just in time for the blade to embed itself in the pillar behind me. In as swift as I could manage I brought the blade of my sword to its neck, the blade struck the bone, cause them to fly out of place. The head of the skeleton fell down, hitting the ground and rolling a short ways from the body. Immediately the bones that had made this seemingly formidable foe, crumbled to dust, the rusty sword staying embedded in the pillar. It was over, somehow I had managed to defeat an undead creature.

"Thank Saradomin I survived that." I muttered to myself.

A deep rumble came from further into the chamber, the direction the skeleton had come. The blue light illuminating the room began to flicker, and then died out completely. The only light in the darkness came from the eyes of the skeleton, the head had rolled the other side of the room. I went over and picked it up, the jaw was no longer attached to the skull, which meant it posed no threat at all, and would suffice in lieu of a lantern. Walking toward the empty darkness was an eerie feeling, a cold breath made my spine tingle.

Reconsidering I went back and grabbed the belt of the man who'd tried to kill me, it had two scabbards. I remembered he had been wielding two swords when he had impaled me a little while earlier. The other sword was laying on the ground a little ways from the body. The bluish glow of the skull was plenty illumination to navigate in the dark chamber. Upon further examination the chamber appeared to be actually divided into two separate rooms. The main room where I was now, appeared to be some kind of ritual chamber, the grate in the floor obviously there to channel some sort of liquid.

The second room was littered with rubble and had a staircase going down, an eerie feeling lifted up out of it. I backed away and looked for the staircase I had come down initially, I found it, but I also found that the ceiling had collapsed, making it impossible to go up. I sat on one of the steps without rubble and stared at the skull with the glowing eyes. The light was just soft enough to not bother my eyes, and seemed to die down somewhat when pointed toward me.

"I suppose I should give you a name." I said to the inanimate object in my hand.

It didn't answer aloud, but seemed to agree with the statement, as though there was an intelligent mind in the skull. I placed it down on the floor, and placed my head in my hands, there was no way out of this. Then I remembered a ling from another book I'd read in the past;

' _The first step in surviving in any environment, is maintaining some form of social interaction, even if just imaginary, it keeps the mind intact. The second step is to remain hopeful, if you begin to feel despaired, then you are already dead. Consider your options, if you cannot get out one way, try another.'_

I looked up and toward the second room. It wasn't necessarily a way out of the crypt, but it couldn't hurt to explore it a little. I picked up the skull, and made my way toward the staircase in the second room.

I cautiously took a step down, and then another, eventually stepping down into a new room. A chattering sound filled the place as soon as I stepped down into it completely. I tried to use the skull to illuminate the floor, but there was nothing there, I felt my heart rate rising. I took a few steps deeper into the room, everything was silent all of a sudden. My breathing came in short quick breaths I was trembling uncontrollably, and the light from the skull was not enough to dispel my anxiety.

Suddenly the room became illuminated in a blue light, exactly like the light that had filled the room when the skeleton had tried to kill. Blinded temporarily, then tense, I dropped the skull and drew my new swords. The room was crawling with massive cockroaches, red in colour, and seemingly docile, at first I wasn't concerned, and tried to calm down. However just as I tried to do this, they became aggressive, and attacked. I sliced one in half easily using the sword in my right hand, and circling around with the left sword in a deft attempt to kill more of them.

Insects however do not feel fear, and they pressed their attack, climbing up my legs or jumping at me from the ceiling, I found myself hacking and slashing in order to prevent myself from being overwhelmed. the hack and slash combat continued for several minutes, then suddenly the attack ended, just as the last one hit the ground, the torches in the room lit up in a normal colour. The harsh change in lighting blinded me a second time, and I stumbled around for a moment in the corpses of the dead bugs. I slipped on one of them and hit the ground hard. An echoing laugh filled the chamber for a moment followed by a menacing voice;

 _"Traveller you have entered my tomb!"_ It said, moving on a breeze that came through the chamber.

"Who are you!?" I screamed at the top of my lungs, almost crying.

 _"I am Dragith Nurn, and you will be my new body!"_ It said, the breeze through the room grew stronger.

"And what if I don't want to?" I asked the entity, rising to my feet.

 _"Then I offer you a challenge; my tomb is filled with creatures you cannot hope to surmount. If by some miracle you manage to defeat them ALL, I will let you go free."_ Replied.

"I accept, prepare to be amazed." I said to the voice.

 _"You will fail!"_ It said, as the wind reversed the voice echoed and died out, the torches also went out as the wind ceased.

The chamber was completely silent for a moment, the flickering torches providing ample illumination to the room. _Just gotta keep moving forward then_ , I thought to myself, pushing ahead into the next room. It was like the light from the adjoining room suddenly died out, looking behind me it was still there, but the chamber I was in now seemed to absorb the light.

Once again my breathing was the only sound audible to my ears. A moment later a skittering sound began, similar to the cockroaches, only from a lighter creature. I drew my swords, and took the best stance I could imagine, a prick of pain shot up my leg, and the muscles went numb. I slashed around near my leg, hitting something, cutting it in half, a loud hissing began and quickly filled my ears. I felt more bites, and the skittering rose in volume, I tried to run back into the first room, but my feet wouldn't move, then I slipped into unconsciousness.

It's a rather odd experience dying, at least that was what I assumed this was. When sensation returned to my body I thought I must be in the afterlife. I opened my eyes, the room was lit with torches, like normal torches, not the eerie blue ones from earlier. I sat up, all around me were dead spiders, and sitting at the centre of the room was the skull with the blue glowing eyes. I got up, all the muscles in my body cried in agony, and I could barely stand, but I was alive, if only just barely.

Staring long and hard at the skull I muttered, "What the hell are you?"

The skull's eyes seemed to flicker for a moment, _look at me_ I thought, _talking to skulls_. Regardless I went over and picked up the skull, it seemed to be useful, in what way, I wasn't quite sure. the next chamber was completely dark, like the last two had been, before I entered it, I managed to create a sling out the tattered remains of my cloak to hold the skull.

Cautiously I stepped into the next room, immediately my ears were filled with a low violent buzzing sound. When the torches lit blue, I saw what was causing it, massive flies, at least two feet long. They covered the walls, landing for a moment then taking off again. I felt my heart rate jump, I drew my swords and they began swarming, I started slashing at them, cutting to pieces one by one, while my muscles screamed in pain. Once I got going the task was not hard, and the entire population of the room had been silenced by the end of half an hour.

I didn't wait for the torches to take on a normal colour, I was already into the next room. When the torches lit I nearly threw up, laying all over the floor were the upper halves of several adult bodies. In the blue of the torches they were hard to count, however, I knew what was coming next, they were about to attack. A flash of light erupted from behind me, and the torches took on a normal colour. A moaning came from one of the piles of half corpses, I ran over and dug around until a half decomposed face stared back at me, I threw up on it inadvertently.

" _Would you mind not doing that?_ " The face said, apparently it was intelligent.

"I - I'm sorry-" I stammered, at a loss for words.

" _Aye, I'm willing to bet I look pretty bad right now._ " The face said, the pile of half corpses around it shifted and a head, neck and torso emerged from the pile, connected to the talking face, _"Not as bad some of these guys though._ "

"What are you?" I asked the half corpse.

" _I'm a zombie, apparently,_ " The zombie held out its hand, " _Corporal Plessie, a pleasure to make the acquaintance._ "

Hesitantly I took the hand and shook it, and introduced myself, "Acelian".

" _That names an interesting one, where have I heard it before?_ " The corporal scratched the remains of his chin, and looked up, " _Bah, doesn't matter, what does however, is what lies in the next few chambers, I'm sure you've figured out that this place isn't exactly hospitable._ "

I nodded in agreement.

" _There's eleven chambers in all, each one is filled with one of his experiments..._ " The corporal seemed to shudder, if that were even possible for a zombie, " _Each one is worse than the last, but the final chamber is where he rests._ "

"Who is 'he'?" I asked him.

" _What? you don't know Dragith Nurn?_ " The corporal said, shocked at the concept.

"Never heard of him." I responded.

" _Well, Dragith Nurn was one of the most powerful mages I ever knew, some even say he fought in the God Wars!_ " The corporal seemed dismissive of that idea, " _Anyway, he settled down in Lum in about 40 PG, set up a laboratory and began working, tirelessly! No one knew what he was doing, but when a demon emerged from his lab, the mage circle of Saradomin was furious, they demanded he open his labs up for inspection! He didn't and they confronted him, and fought him, for two whole days! Finally they were able to slay him, and place him at the deepest point of his lab, the crypt. But he wasn't dead, and his creations weren't either, they attacked us, they killed everybody..._ "

The corporal stopped for a moment, what was left of his face contorted with sorrow.

"Take your time, this is a lot for me to take in." I said, clearing the bodies from next to him and sitting down next to the zombie.

" _But how could I still be here?_ " He said, looking at his rotten hands.

"Maybe it has something to do with this skull." I said, pulling the skull out of its sling.

" _That's the skull of Dragith Nurn's guardian!_ " The corporal suddenly screamed in surprise, " _It's one of the things that killed us!_ "

"Well it's not doing any killing right now, in fact I think it may have saved my life."

" _Well then I suppose it's not all bad, but still that thing cut us all in half!_ "

"Well, clearing away the bodies I think it's worth mentioning, that you still have legs, though they are somewhat decomposed."

" _By Saradomin! you're right! I can stand~!"_

The corporal got to his feet, which was incredible considering the level of decomposition, which was also surprising consider he was over six hundred years dead at least. I also stood, he was about my height, and looked very happy considering that I could've easily stuck my hand through his rib cage. He looked up at me, he looked like he was trying to cry.

" _The worst part about all of this is that I can't even cry, my tearducts have decomposed._ " His voice was melancholy.\\\

"Listen, what happened here is awful, and disturbing in so many ways, but I don't have time to go to sleep and have a nightmare about it," I began, "I am still alive, and I don't think I can get through this crypt without help, and quite frankly you seem to know what you're doing."

Corporal Plessie stood for a moment, thinking, at least I think he was thinking, it's an odd thought, a zombie thinking. Finally he moved, bending over and looking around on the floor, then producing a rusted bronze sword. He looked at it, then spoke.

" _I will help you_ ," He said raising the sword above my head, " _I need not fear death anymore, and you most certainly deserve to live, I will push on into the chambers ahead and deal with what lies there, you follow when it is safe._ "

"Thank you." After a moment I added, "Maybe you should take my sword, it's in a bit better shape than yours."

" _But you need something to protect yourself in case something does happen._ " He said, trying to reject the further kindness I was offering him.

"I have two." I drew and handed him one of the swords I'd come into when this whole thing started.

" _Thank you sir, I will treat it with the utmost respect._ "

The decomposing warrior walked into the next chamber and vanished, a blue light illuminated the room. Massive rats swarmed Corporal Plessie, and for a moment he seemed buried. A moment later his sword cut one of the rats on the pile in half, and then another. Soon he was back on top hacking and slashing rats left and right, the room filled with their bodies until there were none left. The torches in the room turned orange, and he wiped the blood off his sword.

" _I never liked rats, bloody massive ones are enough to make what's left of my skin crawl._ " Corporal Plessie said as he surveyed the carnage.

"I don't think a soul on the planet would disagree." The skull in the sling seemed to agree as well.

The next room was filled a much more dexterous opponent; skeletons akin to the one that almost killed me before entering this crypt. Plessie entered the room and prepared to fight them, only, they didn't attack. Confused he cut one down, but still they did not attack him.

" _I think it's safe._ " He said after a moment of silence.

"Maybe you should just cut them down, you know, just to be on the safe side." I responded, trying not to sound too frightened.

The corporal obliged and cut the remaining skeletons down. The torches in the room lit and I took a step forward, the room was larger than the previous ones, and littered with bones. I didn't stay long in the room, the next room was filled with massive bats, and the room after that another form of skeleton.

The final chamber of the crypt was small, smaller than the first room and had tables and pedestals all around it. sprawled over one of the chambers, opposite of the entry way, was a rotten corpse, not dissimilar in state to Corporal Plessie. It's robes, which were also quite rotted, bore a large hole near the chest, the corpse's face seemed to be contorted in a look of agony. Cautiously, Plessie walked forward, sword at the ready, the corpse didn't move. Even more cautiously he touched the corpse, then let out a scream, his body began turning to dust, his armour clattering on the stone floor.

The corpse on the table sprung to life, seeming to have taken Plessie's vitality, if it could've been described that way. It rose and turned around, looking at me with blind eyes. It groped around on the table, gripping a staff that looked like it was composed of bones with a golden spear tip radiating a red light.

" _Greetings, I am sure you can figure out who I am._ " The corpse said as it gestured with the staff.

"Lets say I don't, what the hell did you do to Plessie?!" I yelled, scared and exasperated.

" _I took his energy, and revitalized myself, though it was supposed to be you who touched the corpse._ " It lowered its staff in my direction, " _As for who I am, I am Dragith Nurn, this is my laboratory._ "

"Doesn't look like much of a lab to me, more like a tomb."

" _I suppose it does resemble one._ " He replied.

"Are you going to kill me?" I asked, fear getting the better of me.

" _I could certainly, but what use would that serve?_ " Dragith Nurn said, sitting down on a chair at the rotten desk, " _I could use you in my experiments._ "

"And what if I don't want to be used in an experiment?"

" _Doesn't matter what you think, I'm still going to do it, and you can't really do anything about it._ " He explained, in a matter of fact way.

"Aye, he can't but I may be able to." A voice came from the entryway of the chamber.

I looked behind me to see a man dressed in beaten indigo hued armour, wielding twin scimitars of the same colour. His face was obscured by a helmet, but his eyes were a striking shade of gold, quite visible through the visor slits of his armour. Levelling his scimitars he jumped over my in the limited space of the chamber and landed two vicious strike on the corpse.

Dragith Nurn roared, and began channelling magic, flinging bolts of fire at the man with the scimitars. Some of them hit him, but he kept going, cutting the corpse to pieces. But of course Dragith Nurn was undead, and simply cutting him apart wouldn't actually kill him. Trembling I started stepping backward, smashing into one of the walls. The man with the scimitars pulled a vial from beneath his cloak and poured its contents over the dismembered corpse.

"Come on kid, I'm one of the good guys." He said, his voice was young, and bore a _Corbinithian_ accent.

"Are you sure, I mean a lot of... things have tried to kill me today." I replied, a cold feeling gripping my body.

"Xenia sent me, she said you could use help... Come on don't go into shock on me!" The man slapped me lightly, but I felt myself losing consciousness.

When I woke up I was sitting in the sun on a stretcher, with a blanket draped over me, a priest stood over me, he looked a little surprised that I was awake. He backed away quickly, and I sat up, next to the stretcher in the muddy ground were the swords I had picked up in the crypt. Xenia slowly walked toward me, followed by the man in the indigo hued armour, he was no longer wearing his helmet, his eyes were indeed gold, and his hair was a radiant black, tied back in a loose ponytail.

"Acelian, I'm so glad to see you alive." Xenia said.

"You left me to die in those crypts!" I yelled at her, feeling an intense sense of betrayal.

"At what moment did you decide you didn't want to die?" The man behind her asked me, his face looked years older.

"Doom, this is not the time!" Xenia said harshly cutting him off.

"That was the point of the test though right?" He pushed, ignoring Xenia's cues.

"This was a test?" I whispered, feeling my sense of betrayal morph into an intense anger.

"No it wasn't!" Xenia insisted.

The man behind her, Doom, put his helmet back on and walked away, looking disappointed.

"Just ignore him, he was thinking of a different person." Xenia wore a smile that insisted she was innocent.

"I don't believe you..." I said, standing, "I don't believe you!" I screamed at her.

Xenia just looked at me with disappointed eyes, I walked out of the graveyard, and ran toward my house. The entire experience had left me rattled, I cried for longer I care to admit. At the end of the day, a part of me died in that crypt, and a part of me was reborn all the same, and a different path manifested.


End file.
